


Burning Bright

by half_sleeping



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: F/M, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-15
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2017-11-18 17:28:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 14,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/563592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/half_sleeping/pseuds/half_sleeping
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Burning Bright: the universe in which Kagami Taiga is a girl and no one else, rather in the vein of Miracles, if you've read that. Assorted ficlets. Not chronological. Ongoing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright fine I gave in and made this a collection. I promise you you will live to see me regret this.

 

v.

Taiga slammed the ball through the hoop and turned to laugh at Kuroko, her face shining with joy and energy, and he'd once thought she was going to be a light and he wanted to be her shadow, but he- he-

She brushed her hair back from her face, and Kuroko thought about being the one to slide his fingers through her hair instead, of touching her face and pulling her down towards him, of how her face would change and her eyes would flutter and-

And then he thought, quite distinctly, _damn_.

 

iv.

 

When they got back from their run along the beach Taiga stretched her arms over her head and grumbled, "Gotta bathe again. Screw Midorima, seriously."

Kuroko said nothing, which had the effect of reminding Taiga that technically they did indeed both owe him, and making her more grumpy.

She slipped her hands under her shirt and stripped it off, wiping sweat from her neck and forehead.

"-" said Kuroko, watching her muscles flex under her skin, the strong line of her back curving into her shorts, her chest under the thick material a daring, heaving promise-

"Dry your hair properly before you sleep," she said, and disappeared into the portion of the room she shared with Coach.

 

iii.

 

Kuroko may never hate anyone like he hates the way Himuro-san says _Taiga_ confidently and familiarly, like he's holding her on the end of the leash that is her name, with that casual air of command and affection.

He is wrong: Kagami-san curls into her seat in the bus afterwards with her knees pulled up to her chest, and stares out the window with her hand on their history.

He passes her his waterbottle and she drinks.

 

ii.

 

"Dude," said Aomine. "If _you're_ not going to eat her chocolate-"

Kuroko smashed his bookbag onto Aomine-kun's thieving hands, and then stood above him threateningly.

"I can't believe you choked down Satsuki's but you won't eat her chocolates just because she made the same one for all of us," said Aomine.

"Shut up," suggested Kuroko mildly.

"Even Midorima got one," said Aomine, who was privy to all Satsuki's late-night quasi-maniacal rants. "She even packed off some to Akashi and Yousen. You know, that ex of hers."

"Shut," said Kuroko, even more mildly, "Up."

"You should start thinking about White Day, probably," said Aomine. "Don't want him to show you up."

He dodged the dictionary just in time.

 

i.

 

"Kuroko WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE," yelled Taiga, when after fifteen toe-tapping minutes she thought to look sideways, and there he was.

"Kagami-san is here," he said, and looked up at her in that way he had, flat, and yet considering.

"Well, yeah," she said, and flapped an envelope in her hand. "I wanted to ask you about this, a letter came in my shoebox. Momoi-chan said it was a love letter when I mailed her, but-"

"But?" said Kuroko.

Taiga shrugged her shoulders and looked down at Kuroko. "I don't- get love letters," she said. "I got a letter of challenge once," she added. "I… punched him out."

"Did you read the letter?" said Kuroko. "That seems like it would prove conclusive."

"…some of the kanji is really hard," said Taiga, and when Kuroko turned around to thunk his head against the wall, punched him in the shoulder. "SHUT UP," she said. "If it was kana I could have read it."

"Did you ask anyone to help you read it?" he said.

"I was going to ask you," she said. "But I couldn't find you before I had to come here." She turned her head, disgruntled. "I think he's late."

"At least you could read that," said Kuroko, and took the envelope from her fingers.

Taiga couldn't look at him reading her- ugh, _really_?- love letter, and kicked dust around with her sneakers. Man, Kuroko was going to laugh at her, in his sneaky way. Tatsuya would probably have laughed. Tatsuya would never have sent her anything like-

"Kagami Taiga-san," read Kuroko, then paused.

"I could read _my name_ , asshole," snarled Taiga.

"I have always admired your spirit and strength of character," continued Kuroko. "Your enthusiasm for basketball and life has given my life new meaning and colour."

Taiga felt like curling up with embarrassment. And Kuroko was reading this, _Kuroko_ , in his serious voice. She couldn't look at him.

"I offered to be the shadow to your light when we first met," said Kuroko, "I would like to ask you to consider my feelings behind the clubroom at-"

"Oh, come on," said Taiga. "That's not what it really says, you're just making it up-" She turned to snatch the letter from Kuroko's hands, but he really wasn't reading from the letter at all, just holding it lightly between his hands, and- wait, how had he known what it had said at the beginning, then, if he hadn't been- oh.

"I think," said Kuroko mildly, pointing at his name on a corner of the envelope, "I remember what I wrote."

"Oh," said Taiga again, and looked at Kuroko.

He looked at her and smiled a little, like he couldn't help it, that little Kuroko-smile that was rare and soft and true. "I'm not late," he said, and Taiga felt herself begin to blush.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taiga and Alex, back in America.

"Oh, sweetie," said Alex, and dabbed at Taiga's eye with a beer can fresh from the cooler, pulling her hair back from her face with Taiga cuddled on her lap.

"I should never have taught you how to fight," said Tatsuya, peering into her face. A little further away, their usual crowd made awestruck catcalls as Taiga gave them the finger.

"'S just a black eye," said Taiga. "You should see the other guys."

Tatsuya's lip curled, _guys,_ and Taiga's new middle school not taking well to a girl nearing five feet eight at twelve, and he _didn't like this_ , he wasn't done getting over being her big brother.

"There, there," Alex said. "I'll give you something to cover it up a little, and we'll keep the pressure on, and you'll be good as new in a few days." She smacked Taiga on the back. "You gave them hell, though, right?"

"Right," said Taiga, and smiled, wincing around her sore lip.

"That's my girl," said Alex.

Alex worked steadily on Taiga's face until Tatsuya, in the way of thirteen year old boys, got bored and muscled his way into a pickup game. "Well?" said Alex, applying the powder in short, sharp strokes, showing her how it was done in the mirror.

"No one plays worth a damn in my new school," said Taiga. She cast covert glances at Alex's full makeup pouch. Her hair was growing out, becoming longer. "I played with the boys."

"Ha," said Alex, shaking her head. "You kids." She didn't say anything after that. That was the thing about Alex, about Tatsuya; they understood the sense of raging fire, of seeking steel. Taiga watched Tatsuya playing with the others on their precious weekends with Alex, her precious weekends with him, and thought about his basketball, better and better and brightest.

"Aaand- pout, Taiga," said Alex, then painted colour on the younger girl while Taiga did, quick pink strokes. "There you go," she said, and then sent her precious student off.

Tatsuya did double-take when he saw her, looking at herself in a chrome surface. "Pretty much?" he said, smiled.

Taiga thought again about how much she loved him, how Alex's hands had moved on her face swift and sure, how she didn't want anything more than this, this everything. "Gives you something to pretend distracted you now that the eye's hidden," sneered Taiga.

Tatsuya gleamed at her, bouncing the ball. "We'll see."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of the first BB ficlets I wrote: BIKINI HIJINKS.

"Oh," said Taiga, skidding behind the gym. " _Fuck_."

"What?" said Midorima. "That's not language a young lady should-"

"What's up?" said Takao hurriedly, heading off the fiftieth permutation of _that_ argument.

"My knot's come out," said Taiga, crossing her arms over her chest. " _Shit_."

"I'm not capable of deciphering that comment," said Takao. "My little sister is only in Junior High."

She scowled at him. "I've got a bikini under," she said. "The knot came out."

"Sexy," said Takao, as Midorima had a heart attack.

"Shut up, we do water resistance training," said Taiga. "And it's hot. Damn, usually I get Coach to- Hey, reach under and help me get it."

" _WHAT_ ," echoed Midorima's outraged shriek.

Taiga stood to the wall, glared at them, "EYES BACK," she said, lifting her huge t-shirt and rummaging. "That's- ugh- okay, got them. One of you come here and help me tie these. I need it really tight."

" _Takao not one step_ ," snarled Midorima. "You- go find your Coach and do it! Don't ask boys to- to-"

"Do you see Coach _around_?" demanded Taiga. "And do you think I want to walk out there into the middle of both our teams clutching my chest? _Do you_?"

"Yeah, that's a good point," said Takao. "Shin-chan, you do it."

"What," said Midorima. Taiga cast him a dubious look and Takao a glare.

"My hands are dirty," said Takao. "I threw up, that's why I'm back here."

"Why did you throw up?" said Taiga.

"Because _basketball_ ," said Takao. "Seriously, though, I came back here to wash my hands. And- rinse my mouth. But there's no soap around, so. You don't want me touching you."

"Fine," said Taiga. "Midorima, get over here."

"No!" he said.

"You can't catch cooties from touching a girl!" said Taiga. "Do you want me to walk into a gym full of boys looking like I'm fondling myself? GET OVER HERE AND TIE THE DAMN KNOT."

"Shin-chan," said Takao. "C'mon. We've all got to get back to practice. Don't waste time."

Taiga glared at him, but he only grinned at her, immune. By now she'd hiked up the shirt, revealing the dips and curves of her waist, her shorts clinging to her hips, the bright band of her bikini bottoms peeking out. In her hands she'd collected the two strings, and held them behind her back. As he took them, she pulled the shirt a little higher so he could see, gathering up her long ponytail as well. She probably smelled, now that she thought about it; beads of sweat dried on her skin in the heat, and they'd been at practice since morning. Whatever. The boys stunk way worse.

"This is highly improper," said Midorima.

"Shut it and tie it _tight_ ," said Taiga. "If you do it too tight, though, I _am_ going to go over to your side and make you unpick it. I like this one."

"Ooo lah lah," said Takao.

"SHUT UP," they both yelled. Takao sniggered, but subsided.

Midorima touched her accidentally, and flinched away at her sharp intake of breath.

"H-hurry up," she said.

"You wanted it done, I'll do it right," snapped Midorima.

"Is he tying a bow," said Taiga.

"It does in fact look like a perfect bow," said Takao.

Midorima lined up the strings before he tied them, carefully, exactly- Taiga couldn't see, but it made sense that Midorima would be as fussy over this as anything else, as careful and precise. She looked over her shoulder at his intent face, and thought about his long fingers on her back-

"Done," he said, and ran his fingers down the long trailing string, dangling all the way to the small of her back.

"Thanks," said Taiga, rolling down her shirt and looking up at him, touching her hair self-consciously and mentally hating Midorima for being a pretty, pretty freak of nature.

"Kagami-san," said Kuroko.

"GAH," she said, jumping forward into Midorima and then just as quickly back, hands curling into his chest for a single long glorious moment. "Augh how long have you been there," she said.

"Since about the time you lifted your shirt," said Takao helpfully.

"…I'm going to go back to practice," said Taiga, and began to lope off. "YOU SAW NOTHING," she called over her shoulder.

"…there was nothing to see," said Midorima to Kuroko.

Kuroko frowned a little at him, and said, "Your coach says you two can take fifty laps for taking too long."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brotp 4 ever.

"We have the same shoe size?" said Aomine, looking down at Taiga's massive boats as she gave Kuroko her jacket and walked out into the court with him, pumped, raring. Damn, Kise was going to get a good fight. Stupid Kise. Aomine was about to make it better.

"What?" she said. "So I'm a freak of nature. Shut up."

Aomine shrugged. "First ball."

.0.

"Is that a skirt?" said Aomine, while Tetsu and Momoi confabulated over in the corner. "I thought we were going to play ball later."

"Skort," said Taiga and lifted an edge. "See, it's a skirt _and_ shorts."

Aomine rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. Clothes talk. Like he didn't get enough of that from Satsuki.

.0.

"Satsuki's next door," said Aomine. "Shoes 're this way."

"'kay," said Taiga, toeing off her sneakers and murmuring _ojama-shimasu_ , following Aomine soft on padded feet.

.0.

He held her bag over his shoulder and stared off into the distance with practiced ease.

"Done," said Taiga, stowing the smaller bag with her school uniform in it, and pulled her hair out from under the collar. "You not changing?"

"I don't need to change out of my uniform for you," he said, and walked on with both their bags still over his shoulder.

.0.

"Let's get something to eat," he said.

"My place?" she said. "It's close."

Aomine blinked at her long and slow. "No," he said.

She shrugged. "Your treat, then."

He didn't think about it. "Okay."

.0.

 _I want to play basketball_ she mails him, during a rare study break. Bakagami-tutoring-time is in full force, and Taiga has not been allowed to sleep in two days.

 _Yeah_ , he replies.

.0.

There's a long complicated list of reasons Aomine should probably not go to Taiga's place alone, and all of them are her, playing matches like her heart is breaking, prickly about her cooking as Satsuki can get.

"We'll play after," she offers him, like a bribe. He's pretty sure she does think she's playing chaperone to him, that Satsuki has pretended it is _him_ who needs looking after.

He doesn't take long to consider it. "Yeah," he said, and steered her though the crowd with an arm to her back.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're warned: dick jokes.

They were safe in the bus heading back to school when Taiga, clearly struggling out of moroseness, said "Man, I guess they loaded you guys up on the pretty pills at Teikou, huh?"

Kuroko turned his head to look at her.

"It's like your whole team was good-looking," she said, and looking out the window, seeing it again, him again, Tatsuya, older, immeasurably older in a way she would never understand, and still beautiful. His basketball, still so beautiful.

"I concede that Kise-kun is heartbreakingly beautiful," said Kuroko, and had he been thinking too, of the hand that had descended on him, the history settling into their bones? "But the rest of us, no, I would hardly say so."

"Well, Midorima," said Taiga. "I mean, he's a weirdo, but you know. He doesn't have a bad face."

"Is this girl talk," said Kiyoshi interestedly. "Are we having girl talk?"

"We could have guy talk," said Taiga. "Kuroko's ex-girlfriend, hot?"

"Mega-hot," sighed Fukuda.

"There you go," said Taiga.

" _Midorima_?" said Furihata. "Seriously though, _Midorima_."

"Tall," said Taiga. "And, you know. He's got those shoulders. He's muscly. I don't meet that many guys outright bigger than me. You're awfully skinny as a whole." She looked out the window and then back in. "Glasses."

Kuroko looked down at his arm. Flexing produced a very satisfactory ripple, but not much else.

Taiga continued. "I said Kise, already, and Kuroko's not that bad, and Murasakibara could do with a haircut, but you know, and Aomine..."

"Aomine-kun?" said Kuroko, saving up a better time to pick 'not that bad' out of his ego.

"Well, he's hot," she said, shrugged. The other two first-years made noises of betrayal. "HE IS," she said, and scowled at them, throwing herself back into the seat and making it shake. "Tall, muscles, and his basketball. My god his basketball.

"Not-" she said. "Not that it stops him being an _enormous dick_ , but I'm just saying. I see it. Smoking hot."

There was a long moment as everyone contemplated the muscled litheness of Aomine's limbs, the breadth of his shoulders, the way he moved on the court, somewhere between lightning-strike and blinding sunlight-

"...I don't see how you could possibly know that," said Kiyoshi, puzzled.

There was another long moment as everyone worked this out, and then everyone groaned.

" _Oh my god_ ," said Taiga, face scarlet. "Kiyoshi-sempai, _oh my god_."

"That's what she said," murmured Kuroko, before adroitly spilling Nigou into Taiga's lap.


	6. Chapter 6

Even with everyone in her house, Taiga could not help but want to shower as quickly as she could, and since Coach was _already_ cooking, there wasn’t much she could do to help. (And maybe if she took a bit longer, they’d already have eaten most of it by the time she came out-)

She put on camisole and underwear, shirt and sweater and sweatpants and socks and jacket, and came out to Kuroko pulling a banana from the crockpot (usually her soup bowl) as everyone stared. She sighed. Time to face the music.

“I hate the cold,” she said to his inquiring look. “It never snowed in L.A. I’m still not used to it.” How Alex stood it, she had no idea. Alex barely believed in underwear. She certainly did not believe in outerwear.

Kuroko looked her over and tried to count layers, mentally, before he realized what he was doing, and stopped himself from doing it. Kagami-san wasn’t shy in the least. However, anything that compelled her to realize that she was far too unguarded and casual, that she was a girl and that she’d even more casually invited their entire team _into her home_ , was surely for the best.

Her toes curled in their socks, close to his bare feet. She reached to refill her mug with tea, and her hair still loose and smelling of her shampoo slid off her back almost into his face, until her body was almost in his lap.

_Far_ too unguarded.

Taiga felt, suddenly, overdressed.

The sensation that someone is mentally undressing you.


	7. Chapter 7

“What the hell are you guys doing?” said Aomine, standing with his hands in his pockets watching two large boys and Tetsu and Satsuki trying to hide behind a planter. Murasakibara was actually sitting on the edge of the planter, munching. Aomine did not have to turn to know that Akashi was approaching, ready to level his stare of ‘I am disappointed in this underhanded and ungentlemanly behavior and shame on you all’ at them.

“Dai-chan, get down!” hissed Satsuki. “Tai-chan is- is- oh, poor Tai-chan!”

“Kagamichi,” said Kise, in much the same tones. “Kagamichiiii.”

Aomine did not ‘get down’. “You’re all idiots,” he said. “What’s up with Kagami?”

“Muro-chin is talking to her,” said Murasakibara, helpfully.

“What, the ex-boyfriend?” said Aomine.

“They were never dating,” Satsuki said. “She was just- he was just her first love back in America, that’s all!”

Kuroko said nothing, only shifted his position slightly for a better look. Midorima, next to him, shoved his glasses up his nose and muttered something Aomine did not bother to decipher.

“Shintarou,” said Akashi disapprovingly. He clearly had had no such trouble. “Is that any excuse to spy on Kagami Taiga? Ryouta? Tetsuya?”

“But she looks like she’s going to be sad,” said Kise, peering through the bush.

“Nevertheless,” said Akashi.

“Muro-chin looks sad,” said Murasakibara.

Kuroko’s expression darkened. Aomine imagined the flood of Tetsu’s thoughts, and privately wished that Yousen dude all the best. Kagami didn’t need protecting, not that you could tell these weirdos that.

“He’s touching her face!” hissed Momoi in semi-horror, and Aomine turned around and walked off before he could get further entangled.

Anyway, you could get a better view of those benches coming from the south side.

A secret meeting of people who are hatching a plot.


	8. Chapter 8

“When you said _you needed me_ ,” said Kise, “I did not think you meant, to help you put on your makeup.”

Taiga’s hands rose and fell before her. Her long red hair was down from its usual ponytail and had been gathered into two long tails, falling past her shoulders. She had on some kind of wrap top fastened under her chest with a black sash, tiny shorts, and sneakers. Kagamichi looked good, Kise had to admit, all leg and bust. Not that he was looking much. “I have a date,” she said.

“Er,” said Kise. “Not with-“ because he’d dealt with that kind of thing before, and that was a lot more trouble than it was worth, and man, now he'd have to let her down easy and maybe she'd cry and he didn't want Kagamichi to cry, but he also didn’t really want to-

"No," she said. "With Midorima.”

Kise choked. “You’re _joking_ ,” he said. “Midorimachi? Really? Very tall, has glasses, _is crazy_?”

“Yes,” said Taiga, taking him by the arm and leading him into a drug store. “I’m meeting him in two hours. I need you to put on my makeup. I asked him, he said yes.”

“Did he know it was a date when you were asking him,” said Kise, grabbing her in turn and leading her out of the drugstore into a mid-priced department store, which would have to do. “Did _you_ know what it was when you were asking him, Kagamichi _are you sure you want to date Midorimachi_.”

“He’ll know it’s a date when I show up _looking_ like it’s a date,” said Taiga, which Kise felt was a dire overestimation of Midorimachi’s deductive abilities. Romantic capability. He stared at a display case and tried to remember what they used at shoots. He didn’t have the slightest idea where to actually get professional makeup.

“But why did you call _me_ ,” Kise complained.

“You seem like the kind of guy who’d know how to put on a girl’s makeup,” said Taiga, watching the counters with an owlish interest.

“But why do you need me to put on your makeup?” said Kise, who had learned early on in involvement with the basketball team not to get sidetracked by such niceties as logic.

“Who else can I ask?” said Taiga, and blinked at Kise suddenly all huge dark eyes and wobbling lip, then ruined it by saying, “Coach is busy with captain and I don’t know any other girls I can ask.”

“ _Other_ girls?” said Kise, and made outraged faces at her.  

“Other than coach,” said Taiga.

“Nice save,” said Kise, and begin to pick things on instinct.

“I didn’t know who else to ask,” she said, and stared at him again, pleadingly. “I tried, it just came out wrong. I even tried to follow how it said in the websites, but it didn’t work. Kise, _please_.”

Kise sighed and felt his shoulders droop. Well, he’d already come all this way, and it wasn’t in his policy to be mean to girls, even girls like Kagamichi. Maybe especially girls like Kagamichi. “Are you _sure_ ,” he said. “You want to go out with Midorimachi? Please think very hard about this. _Very hard_.”

Taiga nodded and blushed,  twining her fingers in the ends of one tail, her other hand still on Kise’s arm where he’d put it so as not to lose her in the crowd. “Yeah,” she said, and Midorimachi wasn’t going to know what hit him. “Yeah, I do.”


	9. Chapter 9

"There really isn't a rule," said Kise, amazed. Takeuchi had no choice but to let them go through with it, snorting in disbelief.  
  
"How can there not possibly be a rule?" said Midorima. Taiga kept inking her name on his hand, carefully.   
  
"I don't care about the rules," said Aomine, grinning a slow and lazy smirk. "I just want to see if you're worth fighting." Taiga bristled.  
  
"...there's a rule about not playing in outside competitions?" said Murasakibara. Tatsuya and Taiga exchanged looks.  
  
Taiga stopped, embarrassed. "If they do, you know," she said. "If they close the loophole, and I can't play with you guys next year-"  
  
"That would never happen," said Kuroko. "We're going to win now."  
  
(Akashi sent the message to Kuroko after it was done. _You were correct in your assessment, Tetsuya. There is certainly no need for any such rule._ )


	10. Chapter 10

Taiga wandered out of the bath to see Kuroko and Aomine drinking sports drinks and pointedly not looking at each other as they talked, and snorted. Typical. She slung an arm around Aomine’s shoulders to interrupt whatever arrogant dumbass thing he was saying now, and he twitched all over and shrugged her off, scowling.

Taiga threw herself down next to Kuroko and scratched her neck. The edges of her bun were damp from steam, and the heat had left her blotchy. “Why’d you come out?” she said to Kuroko.

Kuroko murmured something that got drowned out in Aomine’s snort of “What else? He fainted.”

Kuroko cut a glare to Aomine, but Taiga put her hand to his forehead, saying “Is it better now?” She peered into his face.

“…Yes,” said Kuroko, and, ever-gentlemanly, offered her his sports drink, which Taiga thanked him for and took a swing from. “Kagami-san, you left the bath as well? Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, it's just Coach and Momoi are both still in there,” said Taiga. Aomine and Kuroko both looked at her. “They’re… being naked at each other. Like,” said Taiga, warming to her subject. “Like really, aggressively naked, like, Coach was all ‘you shouldn’t wear a bikini in the bath’ and then Momoi showed up and stole my towel and she has-“ Taiga paused for effect, “She has really, really _enormous_ -“

Aomine’s expression had gone from indifferent when Kagami sat down to thoughtful when Kuroko gave her his bottle to glazed when Kagami said 'naked' and now snapped into horrified embarrassment. “Shut up!” he said. “Don’t talk like that in front of guys!”

Taiga bristled. “Why?” she said. “I bet you talk like that all the time!”

Aomine recoiled, sputtering with protests. Taiga stretched out her shoulders and let down her hair out of the bun she’d put it in to keep it clear of the water. It poured over her shoulders, dark with damp. “Why’s this jerk here, anyway?” she asked Kuroko. “Are they stalking us?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” said Aomine, before he remembered that Touou Gakuen was indeed there stalking Seirin, apparently because these losers had nothing better to do with their time, and now he kept thinking about _naked_ , what the hell was Satsuki doing in there? Besides bathing. “We’re facing you guys in the first round.”


	11. Chapter 11

They took over two benches in the park and sat luxuriating in the March sun, eating takeout yakisoba and, in the case of the girls, chatting happily about basketball. Aomine and Kuroko just ate at each other in companionable silence, and listened in.

“Ooo, and Tai-chan,” said Momoi, passing over the bag Aomine had been carrying, a huge bulging thing. “They didn’t know your home address, so I have all your White Day return gifts here.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Taiga, and looked in it. She and Momoi had exchanged chocolates on Valentine’s itself, but she was actually kind of impressed that there was anything at all from the guys, most of whom she’d made chocolate for just because Momoi had been so very careful about including them in her own batches. Tatsuya- who else, but Tatsuya- had enclosed Reese’s Pieces, the huge kind two to a pack, and a whole pack of those. One for him and one for her, like they’d used to share them. She touched the familiar orange packaging. She hadn’t had any of these in years. Boys like Tatsuya should have been _outlawed_. There was no note, but she hadn’t expected any, and there wasn’t anything on the Pocky assortment taped together, either. She’d never seen these flavours in stores. That was cool. Taiga was amazed someone had managed to pry these out of Murasakibara’s hands to even send in return.

“This must be from Akashi,” said Taiga. She paused as she lifted the pretty little box, elegant and well-crafted, wrapped in waxed paper. “What is it?”

“Some frou-frou stuff from Kyoto,” said Aomine, with accuracy.

“Yatsuhashi from-” Momoi peered over Taiga’s arm. “Ooo, that’s very famous shop, Tai-chan. They’re delicious!”

“Oh, he didn’t put his name down,” said Taiga. “But there are three boxes.” She frowned at it. “Is that right?”

“He is used to purchasing for Murasakibara-kun’s appetite,” said Kuroko. So that had been what the mail was about.

“If he didn’t put his name down, how did you know it was from _Akashi,”_ said Aomine.

“Five pages of thank-you note,” said Taiga. “And- eating instructions and short summary of the history of- I can’t read this. What did you get me?”

“What makes you think I got you anything?” said Aomine. Momoi smacked his arm, which produced a mild _poof_ noise, and nothing else. His jacket didn’t even dent.

“Of course he got you something,” said Momoi. “ _Didn’t you_ , Dai-chan.”

Aomine shifted. “It’s in the bag,” he said. “Block of cooking chocolate. Biggest they had. It was on sale.”

“Cool,” said Taiga. “Thanks.”

“At least it wasn’t coupons,” Momoi sighed.

“[Coupons](../../646832/chapters/1188686)?” said Taiga.

“You don’t get coupons,” said Aomine. “You’ve only been around a year and you take my basketball shoes. You gotta do more than that to upgrade to coupons.”

“Kagami-san is not missing much,” said Kuroko.

“Fuck you you love my coupons,” said Aomine.

“If that’s what you want to call it,” said Kuroko.

“Godiva from Kise,” said Taiga. Bowing to _his_ knowledge of Taiga’s eating habits, Kise had gotten the largest box they had. Both Aomine’s and Kuroko’s expressions flatlined at the same time.

“Midorin didn’t give his to me,” said Momoi. Her smile sparkled. “I think he wants to give his to you in person.”

“Oh,” said Taiga. She ducked her neck into her scarf. “Well, I gave him his in person, so-“

“Oh, _wow_ ,” sneered Aomine, for no reason that Taiga could see. “He gets loads, you know. He always has.”

“It filled up the rickshaw,” said Taiga. “Midorima had to get out and walk, there wasn’t room. Takao only had like one bag. Anyway,” she said. “These are great! All great. I wasn’t expecting anything.” Kuroko had already given her a solid Nigou-sized block of chocolate. Nigou-shaped, too. Taiga had just shuddered, and reminded him that chocolate couldn’t bite anyone.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Done for ficlet requests on the tumblr.

“What the fuck happened here?” demanded Aomine, stopping short in the entryway.

Momoi, hanging half off the back of the lone sofa with her shirt rucked up around her waist, said, “DAI-CHAN! Dai-chan, you’re heeere!” She sat up quickly and then toppled off the other side of the sofa onto the floor, where she blinked at the ceiling. “And Tetsu-kun,” she added. “Tetsu-kun!”

Taiga was sitting at the table staring at her phone avidly, and she looked up at Momoi’s thud and beamed at the two boys in her turn. “You’re here!” she cheered. 

“What the fuck kind of alternate dimension have we stepped into,” said Aomine. “Satsuki- pull down your shirt, what are you doing?!”

She sat up and blinked at him. “Do you want some beer,” she said. 

“We’re out of beer,” said Taiga. 

“Where the hell did you two get beer,” said Aomine, walked over to yank Momoi’s shirt down to her waist, and staring narrowly at Taiga as though to impress upon her that Satsuki had never ever done such depraved things until she’d fallen into the other girl’s company. 

“Alex left some in the fridge,” said Taiga, making a commendable effort to pull herself together. “We were goin’ to- going to share, but it’s all gone now.”

Kuroko wandered over and inspected the tableau, depositing as he did so the bags of Maji Burger takeout in the kitchen. Four cans stood empty on the table, and Momoi-san and Kagami-san both were pink and giggly, their skin flushed and their gazes tending to focus somewhere above the right shoulder. 

Aomine felt Momoi’s forehead and looked scandalized. “You’re going to be sick,” he said. He cast a dark look at Taiga. “You too, you know that right?”

“I don’t feel sick,” she said. “I feel hund-hungry. You took so long with the food.”

“You two called me out of the blue and gave us that ridiculous order!” said Aomine. 

“We would have gone to get it ourselves,” Momoi informed him. “But the room spun.”

“Are you texting Midorima-kun?” said Kuroko. 

“Yes,” said Taiga. “I keep- kept misspelling it, though, so now I have to send it agin.”

“You’re texting him in English,” said Kuroko. 

“Maybe he has a dictionary,” said Taiga, and returned to picking out the letters carefully and precisely. Aomine snorted expressively, but now Momoi was clinging to his chest trying to get at the french fries on the kitchen counter almost two meters behind him, and he had his hands full. Very full. 

“What are you texting him in English,” said Kuroko, patiently. 

“Something,” said Taiga. “You can’t look. Don’t look.”

“I can’t read it,” said Kuroko. “I think you should drink some water now, Kagami-san.”

“But I’m not thirsty,” she said. “I just drank!” Aomine muttered something Kuroko chose not to pay attention to.

“Why don’t we try getting a little food in you,” said Kuroko, lifting out a cheeseburger and placing it in front of her. “I’m sorry we took so long.”

“You’re so nice, Kuroko,” said Taiga, mouth full of burger. “I should have told  _you_ I love you. I love burgers. These are so good.”

Aomine froze- though he thawed faster than Kuroko, who stared down at Taiga in vague blankness- and reached around Taiga to grab her phone, sticking it in front of Momoi’s face. “Satsuki,” he said. “Satsuki, I need you to tell me what this says. I  _can’t read English_.”

“Oh,” said Momoi, blinking intensely and trying to focus, after sounding the words out into the air like a grade schooler, _ai ra-bu you qu-te boy_. “Tai-chan, that’s such a sweet thing to say!”

Slightly intoxicated or tipsy.


	13. Chapter 13

Follows [this](1049703). Poor Taiga.

Eventually, both Himuro’s and Taiga’s resolutions to ignore their so-called friends were so severely tried by the muffled conversation, unabated death glares and repeated slurs upon Himuro’s character and Taiga's intellect taking place behind the planter that they gave up trying to have a human conversation and instead exchanged stories of how very unbearable the Generation of Miracles were, Taiga handily topping Himuro’s horror stories of Atsushi’s unreasonable nature with the time that Kuroko had introduced Nigou into Seirin, and the dog’s subsequent crimes.

This afforded Taiga with the opportunity to ‘notice’ Kuroko, sitting just a bit too close and staring at them both ‘innocently’, introducing him to Tatsuya for the second time. 

“I remember,” said Himuro, and smiled at Taiga, which for some reason became the signal for the entire idiot brigade to cluster around them, Momoi tucking herself up against Tai-chan’s side with what Himuro could only term an  _adorable_ glare at him, and Murasakibara prudently drawing Himuro away before Midorima could embark on a long-winded and incomprehensible opinion of his character. 

Taiga thought they were all crazy. 

“We’ve got some free time until the closing ceremony, don’t we?” she said to Kuroko, but her eyes rested on all the ridiculous boys she’d met in the course of a ridiculous year; ridiculous, and amazing. 

“Certainly,” said Kuroko, and producing a basketball from nowhere. Akashi’s eyes sharpened as he looked at it, and Aomine grinned almost before he could help himself, though Kise eyed around the circle and looked apprehensive. “Four on four?”

“The stadium’s crawling with basketball players,” said Taiga. “We’ll just pick up a couple and we can have a full game.”

“Not a _full_ game,” Momoi demurred, but she looked at Taiga’s too-bright eyes and smile, and well, Dai-chan couldn’t complain about having to come out here if he got a game out of it, could he? “Ki-chan is still injured.”

Kise began to raise his protests at this even as they meandered like a noisy and quarrelsome cloud towards the outdoor courts where they could be sure of escaping discovery for long enough for a _small_ game, at least. Taiga took hold of the basketball from Kuroko, and spun it on her finger,  bouncing it off her elbow, her wrist, all tricks Tatsuya himself had taught her, looking at the curve of the smile on his face out the corner of her eye. She wanted to play, and she didn’t even mind that it had to be with these jerks; she’d beaten them all before and she’d do so again and again. 

The urge to overcome melancholy by dancing.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I really intended for this to be done over two months ago, but IT WAS NOT TO BE. Precursor to the White Day fic, and shameless shoujou schmoop.

 

“I still think it’s sad Riko-san didn’t want to make chocolates with us,” said Momoi, tasting a little melted chocolate off the spoon she held, a picture-perfect little domestic girl, apron tied around her waist and cloth tied over her hair.

Taiga, dressed in her own, much less cute apron, muttered something; anything was better than repeating Coach’s comprehensive reply to Momoi’s cheerful text message, with had started with _how did she get my num_ \- and ended with Taiga having to promise to her sempais that she would never mention making chocolate in Riko’s hearing again.

“They turned out… okay…” she said, surveying the fruits of their labour. The chocolates of their labour. Taiga had made an executive decision and divided the work, so that it had been Momoi who crinkled little sheets of waxed paper and twisted wire ties closed around tiny packets. The one Momoi intended for Kuroko was about the size of a fist and lavishly decorated, and she’d done less elaborate decorations for special ones intended for specific people. Taiga had declined to personalize her chocolates, instead, she now had over two dozen identical little sparkly bags of truffles, and found herself, much to her disgust, having to earmark some for the biggest jerks she knew, only because Momoi teared up and looked sad when she thought about them being left out.

“It’s my first time doing anything so pretty,” she said, and fingered the tiny bags. “I just like to think of them having the chocolates, even if it’s just courtesy.”

“You’re not actually going to courier that all the way to Kyoto, are you?” said Taiga, trying to make a mental list and wondering if she could just pretend they were her own gifts to herself.

“I’ll leave it at Akashi-kun’s house here,” Momoi said. “They’ll send it up to him for tomorrow, and while they’re at it they’ll deliver to Yousen and Mukkun too.” She smiled at Taiga. “Won’t that be a nice surprise for Himuro-san?”

Taiga snorted. “Big surprise, yeah,” she said. “There’s no way he’d expect anything so girly from me.”

“Why shouldn’t he?” said Momoi. “You’re a girl.”

Taiga studied the one she was getting ready to pack up with Momoi’s to send off. “I know,” she said, and she did know. She thought maybe Tatsuya knew that too, had known the first time when she’d walked up to him, known when he’d fastened the ring around her neck, known when they’d been talking after the Winter Cup, and he’d reached out to tuck her hair behind her ear. Suddenly she wished that she’d done some decorating too, besides scrawling his name on the side in red marker. She darted a look at the pile she’d set in the corner; maybe she could do something to-

Momoi’s phone rang, and Taiga let go of the impulse. They’d have to take what they could get and be _grateful_ for it.

“We’re already cleaned everything up,” said Momoi into her phone; Taiga could hear Aomine growling on the other end, whining on the other end. “There’s nothing left for you to eat. You- what? Yes, of course I’m coming home for dinner, Dai-chan, did you- no, I didn’t _ruin_ them, you’re horrible!” Her head whipped around. “Tai-chan- we’ll meet again tomorrow, okay? We’ll all exchange chocolates then!” By that she meant _bring Tetsu-kun so I can give him a symbol of my enduring love_ , but Taiga was used to that, and waved her off without a sigh.

.0.

The next day was Valentine’s Day, and Taiga was relieved to see that Coach hadn’t tried to do anything like homemade chocolates (Momoi’s proposal had been more of an ambush than a plan) and instead had very simple sugar cookies out for them after practice, a special tripled practice, to work off all the chocolates they would no doubt receive. The entire team congratulated Mitobe-sempai on the cookies, but ooohed when Taiga passed out her chocolates, clutching them to their chests with tears flowing down their cheeks. She passed one to Coach and one from Momoi, too, which Riko eyed somewhat truculently before she sighed and told Taiga to pass on her thanks.

Kuroko thanked her for his share, politely. Taiga ate some of the cookies and looked at the shrines of chocolate some of them were building. Izuki-sempai’s was the largest by far, but Kiyoshi’s was a fair amount. After winning the Winter Cup, Seirin’s basketball team was popular, or something like it. Even the first-years collected neat little stacks.

.0.

Momoi had an entire presentation ceremony to give hers to Kuroko, and unsurprisingly Aomine had tagged along behind her with his bag stuffed  with chocolate as well, though after seeing Kise’s haul- before he’d run back into hiding so as not to be engulfed in a massive fangirl wave- Taiga felt she was never going to be impressed by a mountain of chocolate ever again.

“You made these, right?” Aomine demanded. “They’re safe to eat? Where’s mine?”

“Didn’t Momoi already give you hers?” said Taiga.

Aomine sighed and showed her his from Momoi; rather pointedly she’d drawn a whole line of Touou jerseys and decorated with sports shoe logos in gel paint. “Now you,” he said.

“What makes you think I have any for you?” said Taiga, annoyed.

“Satsuki wouldn’t have let you get away with it,” said Aomine, and eyed her. “I bet you gave one to Tetsu.”

“Maybe I’m out,” said Taiga. “And of course I gave one to Kuroko, he’s my teammate.”

“No you’re not,” said Aomine; he looked at Kuroko accepting his chocolate from Momoi under his eyelashes, and back at Taiga.

“Fine,” said Taiga, and dumped the one she liked the least into Aomine’s stash. He made a pleased noise and opened it to start eating.

“Alright, these aren’t awful,” he announced, his mouth full. “Satsuki’s will be safe to eat too.”

“You don’t deserve our chocolates,” Taiga told him, disgusted. In answer, he just popped another one into his mouth and chewed noisily.

Momoi floated back over to them on a cloud of joy, and Kuroko tucked her gift to him away. He looked down at Aomine’s overflowing mouth in judgement.

To Taiga’s surprise, Momoi whipped out one of the chocolates from her bag, and pressed it into Taiga’s hands, smiling and laughing, and she said, “Tai-chan- for you! You helped me so much, and I had so much fun making! I’ve never-“ she said, and looked down at Taiga, eyes sparkling, “I’ve never had someone to make homemade chocolates with before. Thank you so much.”

Taiga took the bag and fished out one of her own to give to Momoi, who took it and then promptly engaged in a battle royale with Aomine over if he could just steal Tai-chan’s chocolates from her when he already had his own. Momoi had gotten edible basketball decals from who knew where, and drawn a Seirin jersey. Valentine’s Day wasn’t a _thing_ for Taiga the way it had been for her classmates in junior high, the way it was for Momoi, and a year ago she hadn’t seen the point of going through all that just for guy who might not even know you liked him, just so you could giggle and coo and boys could strut through the halls with their arms laden down with their popularity.

(Momoi took one from Aomine’s open bag, and when he protested stuck her tongue out at him. Kuroko stole one as well, letting it melt on his tongue, and looked at the bag: the same for all of them.)

Just because she now had a dozen, two dozen people to give chocolates to, and at least one to receive them from, and- someone she wanted to give chocolates to, someone who might not even know she liked him.

“Momoi,” Taiga said, and then stopped, and turned scarlet, her blush heating up her skin, “Do- do you know where Shuutoku is?”

.0.

Taiga stood blowing into her hands on the route that Takao and Midorima customarily took to get to the station (making a mental to note to never ask Momoi to use her powers for evil). Midorima’s bespectacled head was easily recognizable from far away, and next to him Takao wheeled the rickshaw, filled with what looked like the haul of all the regulars combined. Taiga was cold. She’d pulled Seirin’s jersey over the school sweater, and still she shivered in the evening chill. She rubbed her bare knees against each other and steeled herself.

It was Takao who first noticed her, though how the hell you could overlook a girl almost two meters tall was beyond him. His elbow shot out immediately and jabbed Midorima in the ribs repeatedly as he struggled for speech.

“Hi,” said Taiga.

“What are you doing here?” said Midorima. It was the first time he’d seen Seirin’s Kagami in her school uniform. Her hair was the same familiar ponytail, and the Seirin jersey was unmistakable, but Taiga wore her skirt _very_ short, and her long bare legs in their sneakers- looked cold. Midorima wrenched his gaze away, pushing up his glasses as Takao leered at him and Taiga indiscriminately.  

She dug in her bag and pulled out her hard-made chocolates. The rest of Shuutoku’s regulars gaped unattractively as she held out the sparkly little bag to Midorima. Takao made a noise like someone slipping on worn-out practice shoes.

“I had- I have some left over,” she said, not meeting his eyes. “I made them with Momoi,” she explained, and at the look of momentary horror on Midorima’s face said, “It’s alright, even Aomine ate them.”

“You gave those to other men?” said Takao, shaking his head sadly. “Oh, Kagami.”

“I made a lot,” she said, as though she was already tired of saying it. “You guys too- er, I mean if you want them, and, um, thank you for- the past year.” She waved her hand sort of vaguely as she said this, and meant, _for the camp, for the matches, for being rivals and for being friends_. Shuutoku’s lineup wasn't going to be the same without them.

“Oh, man,” announced Takao to the winter air. “We’re chopped liver. Look how much Shin-chan got, Kagami, isn’t it sickening?”

“Shut up, Takao,” said Midorima, still gripping his gift from Taiga.

Ootsubo accepted his gracefully, and said “Are you cold? You must have been waiting for a bit.”

“I don’t like cold,” said Taiga, which she figured was a better thing to say than _I’m freezing my tits off_. “I just- well, I sent off some to Yousen and Momoi sent something to Akashi, too, so- that’s just for you guys.” She coughed. “Anyway, that’s the last of them, so I guess- happy Valentine’s Day, see you guys whenever.”

“Thank you for the chocolates,” said Midorima, stiffly. She waved to them and set off, towards the train station, while all of the other regulars turned their heads and stared at Midorima, who flushed under their gazes. “What?”

“She came all the way to give it to you in person,” said Takao. “In the cold. From Seirin. On Valentine's Day. Shin-chan, are you an idiot? _Go after her._ ”


	15. Chapter 15

This time Midorima was the one waiting for her, having prudently ditched Takao in order to minimize the pointing and laughing (though he had been assured that there was much, much more to come), and he stared leadenly into the distance while Seirin students fluttered past him, audibly wondering why a student from an elite school was standing there and who he could possibly be waiting for, and why he carried a clear bag with a whole gingerbread house in it. Conversation died away as that one really really tall freshman girl who had joined the boys basketball team who had made such a fuss at morning assembly and had won national champions this year walked up to him- and he was tall, too, just taller than her, and did he play basketball too? Was this the quality of boys in the sport from other schools? And standing next to him, she really did look way more like a girl, looking that little way up into his face, against the breadth of his shoulders and-

“Let’s...walk,” said Taiga, and quickly ushered Midorima off to before it could flash all over the entire school and to Captain’s ears that their ace was meeting a boy at the train station in full view of way too many students from her school.

Midorima quickly complied. All day long, he had been watched like a hawk by women, even though he had accepted only the chocolates with no love confession attached. It was exhausting.

“It was conveyed to me that a small token of returned- respect- would be appropriate,” said Midorima, staring into the middle distance.

“Y-yeah!” said Taiga, watching the wind ruffle leaves. “The other- gu- I mean the others, they got me stuff too.”

“Oh,” said Midorima. “-what others?”

“Oh,” said Taiga. “The jerks. Er, Kuroko. Tatsuya. All the jerks.” Except one. She peeked at him. She didn’t know why Midorima, out of all them, had forgone giving his basically obligatory return present to Momoi and instead insisted on giving to her in person. She shouldn’t even have given him _his_ in person. Why had she even done that? All she’d walked away with from that encounter was a scarf she couldn’t wear anyway because she’d taken it to school during that week and Kuroko had recognised it on sight and so had Momoi, and that had been _weird_. They hadn’t even _talked_. All they’d done was walk in awkward, freezing silence, just like they were doing now.

“I-” he said, “I have- Ootsubo-san sent this along for you. In thanks for the chocolate, he said.”

Taiga opened the bag and drew out long, _knitted_ woolen socks in both black (three pairs) and the Seirin colours, unfolding in her grip. She held one against her leg and it was long, way longer than any socks Taiga had ever managed to find in Japan or anywhere, well above her knees.

“Woah,” she said. “Seriously?” She sat down on the first bench they came to to put them on.

Midorima, mouth dry, watched her draw the material up her thigh. He couldn’t help noticing that long as the socks were, they still did not quite reach the hem of her skirt, leaving a strip of golden skin.

“Wow these are really nice,” said Taiga, holding out her one socked leg and flexing it. “Where’d he get them?” She looked up. “Midorima?”

Midorima snapped back to reality. “He made them,” he said. “Ootsubo-san knits for relaxation and to keep his fingers limber. He says he noticed you were cold.”

Taiga waited for the inevitable jerkass lecture full of Midorima’s patented blend of concern and condescension. She was not disappointed.

“If having your legs bare makes you feel cold, you should cover them up,” said Midorima stiffly.

“Stockings are a pain to wear, that’s all,” said Taiga. She snapped the top of the sock against her skin- wow that was a strong elastic- and Midorima twitched all over.

“You could wear a longer skirt,” said Midorima, manfully striding on as Taiga put on a second sock, wiggling her bare toes in the cold air for a second. “Or pants. You could wear a jersey under your skirt.”

“Mine gets sweaty after practice,” she informed him. “I wear running shorts all the time anyway, so that’s none of your business.”

“You could wear a longer skirt,” said Midorima, obstinately. “If you did you wouldn’t be cold.”

“These are just as good,” said Taiga mulishly right back at him. “They’re nice and warm.”

She stood up and brushed down her skirt. “Anyway, shows what _you_ know,” said Taiga. “The wind gets in even if the skirt’s long. You’ve never worn one, so don’t talk about things you don’t understand. I really like these. I should thank him for them.”

Midorima muttered under his breath. Oha-Asa had predicted great trials for him today, but at no point had she mentioned anything about a miniskirted Kagami Taiga dressing her bare legs in public.If she had, Midorima might have just stayed home sick today.

“What did you say?” said Taiga.

“I said I _have_ worn a skirt,” said Midorima. “We all have. It was part of our- I mean, Teikou’s hazing to become a regular.” He paused. “It was very cold and strange.”

Taiga stopped and stared, and then creased up and started laughing. “ _All_ of you?” she said, as the full hilarity of the conversation dawned on her.

“Yes,” said Midorima. “- it’s not funny!”

“Oh, it’s very funny,” said Taiga. “I bet Momoi has those pictures.”

“She swore she destroyed them,” said Midorima, squaring his shoulders and trying to huff away.

“I bet she didn’t,” said Taiga, following him. “I bet she’ll show them to me.”

“She wouldn’t dare,” said Midorima. “Don’t _ask_!”

“I should ask right now,” said Taiga, pulling out her phone and skipping out of reach, still laughing.

“We only had to shout from the roof to join the team, Teikou must have been _weird_.”

“It’s not any weirder than having to do something like that,” said Midorima, stung.

“Yes it is,” said Taiga. “Who are you to talk about weird, anyway. You’re carrying a gingerbread house.”

“It’s not _mine_ ,” said Midorima, before he remembered that he’d had a completely different script for this and _damn Kagami Taiga_.

“What,” said Taiga. “It’s _not_ today’s lucky item?”

Wordlessly, Midorima displayed a multicoloured friendship bracelet tied around his wrist.

“Huh,” said Taiga. “So what is that thing, then?”

“It’s yours,” he said. “I mean- it’s your white day gift. And your lucky item.”

“...my lucky item is a gingerbread house?” said Taiga.

“Yes,” said Midorima.

“Huh,” she said, and took it from him, adding to the weight of all the gifts she already carried. “Er, thanks.”

“It’s my return gift,” said Midorima, not looking at her again. “For White Day. That’s it,” he said. “That was all I- you’d better remind to thank Ootsubo appropriately for his thoughtfulness. Goodbye.”

“Hey,” she called after him. “I forgot your scarf!”

Midorima coloured right up to his ears. “It- it doesn’t matter!” he said.

“It does!” she yelled at him. “I- look, next week! I’ll meet you on Sunday! You- you’d _better_ be there, alright?”

 He would never know what precisely posessed him, but Midorima turned his head back and shouted, "Fine!"

(“One day when I’m lying on my deathbed,” said Aomine, “My life is going to flash before my eyes, and it’s going to be an endless parade of ‘who are these idiots and what am I doing here’, and I’m going to die full of regrets.”

“Nobody forced you to come,” said Momoi. Kuroko faded in and out of visibility behind a neighbouring hedge.)


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follows chapter 14.

Aomine stomped up the stairs to his room to find that even though his mom had warned him Satsuki had come in a few hours back, it was dark and the door was closed and no one was inside, at least until he threw his chocolate-filled bag on his unmade bed and the lump that was his blanket made a small, pained noise in protest.

“What the fuck are you doing there,” said Aomine, once he’d recovered from the shock. He reached over and tried to pull her out, but she resisted, holding tightly onto the sheets. “Satsuki, get out of my bed.”

In answer, she only pulled her cocoon tighter, and Aomine considered bodily picking her up and carrying her to the sofa outside, except meant he’d be giving up his sheets, and then he’d have to go and fetch new ones.

“I thought you were with Tetsu,” said Aomine. Satsuki’s bag lay in the corner behind the door. He could just about see her socked foot and her ever-present green hood tangled with her hair; she hadn’t changed or washed when she’d gotten into his bed, just walked straight in.

Somehow that just annoyed Aomine even more, even though he couldn’t actually remember when it was his mom had last changed his sheets. “ _Oi_ ,” he said, and pulled harder, revealing Satsuki’s tear-stained face.

Aomine dropped the blanket back over her face like a hot potato. “Fuck,” he said. Satsuki rolled herself back up, ending up against the wall facing away from him, still refusing to come out. She sniffed.

“I thought you were with Tetsu,” Aomine said again, more urgently. “Satsuki, did something-“

“No,” she said, finally, sounding stuffed up. “Not- nothing bad happened. I was with him. Then I came home. Nothing-“ she broke off.

Aomine relaxed fractionally and sat on the bed- it was his damn bed, anyway. Satsuki rolled onto her presumably-back with his weight on the mattress. “Then why are you crying,” he said. Tetsu wouldn’t have let anything happen to Satsuki, he knew that.

“Tetsu-kun said,” said Satsuki, voice muffled. “Tetsu-kun said-“ her voice broke on a sob, and Aomine thought, rather distantly, that of course, Tetsu couldn’t help making Satsuki cry any more than Aomine could.

“What,” he said, shifting so that his back rested on the wall and her both, forming a lean-to over the cotton sausage that was her body. He didn’t feel like he could recognize his own voice. “What did he say?”

“He said he-“ she hiccupped. “He said he could only accept my chocolate this year as a friend.”

Aomine made a noise of disgust, even though Tetsu had never said that before, in two years of taking love-chocolate from Satsuki. “That’s not something to-“ he started.

“He likes Tai-chan,” said Satsuki, and the cold truth of that lay between them; even Aomine knew it.

How could he help but know?

“Yeah,” said Aomine, and suddenly everything he’d wanted to say to her for three years about her crush on Tetsu lodged in his throat, all the ‘but you never talk to each other’ and ‘why him anyway why do you like him so much’ and ‘but he doesn’t give you any encouragement at all’. 

“Tai-chan’s my friend,” said Satsuki. “She likes Midorin.”

Aomine had sort of suspected that. Well, known that too. Kagami wasn’t any more subtle than Satsuki, leaning against Midorima, making up excuses to touch him. She’d walked off today to make a confession too. He couldn’t see what she liked in that stuck-up prissy nerd anymore than he had been able to see why Satsuki had liked Tetsu for so long.

“I said he could,” said Satsuki. “That I would always be his friend.”

Aomine was stroking the approximation of where her hair was before he knew it, his hand a heavy weight on her head, he stared at the opposite wall with his posters on them which she was always nagging him to get rid of.

“I can’t-“ Satsuki said. “I want-“ she made another noise, soft and broken, and Aomine wondered viciously where Kagami had ever gotten off, walking into their lives. Where the hell Tetsu got off, not telling her that years earlier when she hadn’t had so much time to dream about him. What the fuck about Satsuki wasn’t good enough for him. “I can’t support him,” she said, softly. “I still. I still.”

Satsuki must have cried herself out before he got back, because she didn’t start sobbing again. “At least he liked the chocolate,” said Aomine, after a long moment of silence, and his hand went below the covers, to brush a damp cheek. She shifted under his back. 

“Of course he’ll like them,” said Satsuki, voice still muffled. “Even you like them. Tai-chan made them.”

“So did you,” Aomine said, quietly.

This time, she let him pull the sheets from her grip.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some KagaKuro for a change since I opened up requests on tumblr.

Taiga roused abruptly to find that the rest of the study group had also either fallen asleep or left, possibly in a spirit of mercy but more probably because they’d given up and gone to seek their own beds. She had been awakened by Kuroko, who looked embarrassed even as he held out his school jacket to tuck around her. 

"Man, I’m not going to pass those tests," she said, and tried to sit up. 

"You’ll be fine," he said, tucking the jacket around her, gently but firmly. "Riko-san said you’d done enough for today. Don’t worry about the tests, Kagami-san."

"Really?" she said, tired enough to accept this without question, and curling back and down against the cushions. 

"Maybe," Kuroko said, without committing himself. 

She put her head on his shoulder then, just a little, because she was tired and he was smiling in that special Kuroko way, without seeming to. 

"Okay then," she said, sleepily. "If you promise."

"Yes," he said, though she heard his voice as if from very far away, and very rough, low-voiced. "I do."


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PLAYS CHOP-CHOP WITH THE TIMELINE. Set in a hypothetical rookie camp post white day.

Taiga crossed her legs as she attacked her tray. Group A were all crammed into the tiny canteen tables eating their nutritionally-sound dinners with a maximum of noise, sweat, and grunting, but even six to a table (canteen boundaries enforced with the threat of scissors and death) Taiga still found herself sitting alone, an island of citrus body spray in a cloud of- her nose wrinkled- something with steel in the name dispensed from a black-painted can.  

Well, mostly alone. 

"You gonna eat that?" said Aomine. Taiga held up her chopsticks threateningly. Kuroko had taught her to go for Aomine’s eyes. He couldn’t aim, he couldn’t steal. She chomped even more furiously.

Aomine had only asked out of sarcasm. Already his gaze was slipping along the other tables and their loads of other first-year players, sizing them up for weakness. They lowered their eyes and bent over their trays, flinching away. That was weird, even for Aomine.

Taiga washed down a baseball-sized mouthful with energy drink, the one thing Momoi was allowed to touch regarding food. “Do they not like you because you’re an asshole,” she said, something she had been mulling over since she was put into the group with Aomine, “or are you an asshole because they don’t like you?” She looked at the empty seats next to them. Taiga hadn’t expected be to mobbed or anything, but the other players had seemed to be actively avoiding her. Except the jerks, in all their annoying, arrogant glory. But the Generation of Miracles were all in different groups from her, except for Aomine. Even someone like Takao would have been welcome- at least he was always friendly. If she could only talk to _him_ -

Aomine’s eyes snapped back to her. “Middle school stuff,” he said, shortly. 

"So all of you hate everyone, not just each other?" she said. The tension was pretty high, even for the tangled web of high school basketball. She poked at her empty bowls. Aomine was terrible company, but he was all she had during practice, when Momoi was busy elsewhere.

"I like… Tetsu," said Aomine. "Sometimes."

"Yeah," said Taiga, who had been witness to the carnage of- this whole year, the way Aomine and Kuroko raged against each other without relenting. "Sure you do."

Aomine shrugged, and that was the end of that conversation, again. Momoi was so much better at getting along with Aomine than Taiga was, and Kuroko never made her this uncomfortable to have to be staring at his face without saying anything. Taiga opened her pudding cup and a balled-up napkin sailed in to bounce off Aomine’s drink cup and it skidded to a sad stop on the expanse of table.

"Is it so hard to aim?" said Aomine with disgust, demonstrating the sunny personality for which he was reviled by apparently everybody. "Is it so fucking hard?"

"Wow," said Taiga, unable to summon up any further emotion. "Now they’re throwing trash at us? That’s- wow." She noticed writing on it and unballed it. 

"Oh, it’s to me," she said, then stopped. Her throat felt dry and tight, suddenly all the food she’d just eaten threatened to come back up. (Suddenly she was fourteen again, and new, and alone, and unwanted.) It wasn’t Aomine, it was her, he was the one standing by her and being excluded for it. Again. She couldn’t read the characters, and Taiga couldn’t tell if this was because of the handwriting or their complexity; she couldn’t focus on the words. Aomine had gone still and silent, his jaw tight and clenched. Taiga tried to think of words to distract him, because there was that core to him, ferocious when roused and furious, and he looked very dangerous now.

Aomine took the napkin out of her numb hands with his stupid reflexes and looked at it. The storm cleared off his face, but only a little bit.

"You… basketball…. play…. good," said Aomine. "Kagami, this is a love napkin. Some idiot threw you a love napkin."

(“I should have thought of that!” someone cursed behind Taiga. Aomine glared and whoever it was instantly shut up.)

""You barely looked at it!" she said. The world was coming back into colour, and she breathed. 

"That’s what it says," he said. He pointed at the paper. "That’s _all_ it says."

Taiga squinted at it. “Really?” she said. 

"It’s really shitty handwriting," said Aomine, hypocritically if accurately. "But yeah, I’m sure." He crumpled it up again and threw it into the bin, two tables away and behind the tea canisters. "Ignore it. Don’t encourage them." He pointed a finger at Taiga. "Haven’t you learned anything from Satsuki? They’re animals. Don’t talk to them. Don’t look at them. They are lower than scum to you. Do you understand this?"

"What is wrong with you," said Taiga, beginning to blush. She'd thought it was- how stupid of her. She jumped up and lifted her tray to bring it to the wash area. "They’re not- you’re imagining things, and you are  _deranged_.”

Aomine closed his eyes expressively. Everyone was listening, and the news would rocket around the camp in seconds, Kagami Taiga flushing delicately over someone’s daring love note, adorable in her innocence and suddenly approachable for all these idiots. Three days of covert looming, vague threats, and having to actually pay attention to the idiots around him, completely in the trash. See if he ever agreed to do Tetsu the favour of looking out for Kagami again. 

See if this (and the new, awkward silence between Midorima and Kagami, the stutter of mutual stares) finally managed to get Tetsu off his ass.

The war of all against all.


	19. Chapter 19

“I… should not have picked water resistance training,” said Taiga.

“Wow,” said Aomine, whose slow simmer was reaching dangerous boil. “You think?”

Taiga pulled her Seirin jacket a little further down her thighs. A dozen pairs of eyes watched her longingly, but furtively, because Akashi was swimming laps with Midorima, and Aomine had planted himself next to Taiga on the bench with a Look on his face.

Akashi had ushered her to the bench himself and left Aomine- there was no other way to put it- guarding her. If it was possible to swim menacingly, he was doing it. Akashi surfaced from his tenth lap, Midorima just a hair of a second behind him. If they had stopped competing even once during the camp, Taiga didn’t know about it. Taiga watched Midorima’s shoulders flexing wistfully. He hadn’t even looked at her all camp. She’d thought picking to go with Group C for water training would have given them time to talk, or even break this silence, but he’d ignored her… even when he fell into the pool and almost lost his glasses because he wasn’t watching where he was going.

Taiga put her head into her hands and sighed. It wasn’t too late to change out of her swimsuit and go- jogging, or something. The supervisor for this activity hadn’t turned up yet: they were waiting around for him because they technically weren’t allowed in the water without one present.

The door swung open and Momoi stepped through, wielding her ever-present clipboard and-

“<Oh my god>,” said Taiga, in english. Aomine turned his head and went absolutely still.

Momoi waved frantically at Taiga and gave her a thumbs-up. Bikini solidarity! Several boys slipped into the pool discreetly but urgently.

“I’m going to kill her,” said Aomine, in a voice barely more than a growl.

“I’d rather look at her than me,” offered Taiga.

“You _shut up_ ,” said Aomine.

Taiga bristled. “ _What_ did you say to me?”

“Hey, Kagami,” said Takao, picking this moment to sidle over. His appreciative gaze rested on the pale expanse of Momoi’s legs. “No string bikini for _you_ this time around?”

“Goddamnit I am _going_ to punch someone today and it might as well be you, Shuutoku,” said Aomine, turning on him.

“Do you ever have small emotions?” said Taiga. “Ones that don’t involve boobs or violence? Hi Takao.”

“This is the best camp ever,” said Takao with deep conviction, sitting a careful distance away from Taiga, so that she would be between them if Aomine lunged for his throat. “Not going to ask Shin-chan to tie you up again?”

Aomine stared at Taiga, judging her. She flushed. “It was a beach camp! We got wet a lot!”

Takao snorted.

“Any way it’s not a string,” said Taiga, since she wasn’t about to open her jacket and flash Takao. “It’s a sports one that Coach recommended.”

“You Seirin girls are wild, baby,” murmured Takao.

“What?” said Taiga.

“What,” said Aomine, more ominously.

“Nothing,” said Takao. “Isn’t Momoi cute?”

“ _What_ ,” said Aomine, again.

“She’s so cute,” said Taiga.

“Her hair’s cute,” said Takao.

“It’s really cute,” said Taiga.

“Can you both just _shut up_?” Aomine wanted to know.

“It’s just cute,” said Taiga, and pulled at her own ponytail. “When is the sub supposed to get here, anyway?”

“Who the fuck knows,” Aomine muttered, and drew up his leg to prop up his chin. Momoi was crouched at the edge of the pool speaking to Akashi, her hair was braided tightly against her head and her blue bikini covered by her jacket.

“I’m bored,” said Takao. “Shin-chan’s too busy for me now.”

“<Lotta that going around>,” muttered Taiga, looking at Midorima who had paused swimming and was readjusting his swim cap. He pointedly faced away from them, ostensibly listening to Momoi. She didn’t care if he didn’t speak to her. She didn’t care if he never spoke to her again, when all he did was act like someone had shoved the stick up his ass extra high, spending all his spare time competing with Akashi instead of being civil or playing after-hours basketball when they asked him to. When she asked him to. Not looking at her or talking to her-

While Taiga contemplated how little she had wanted Midorima to see her in a bikini again, as a last resort, not that he seemed to care at all.

Takao nudged her in the ribs. “Hey,” he whispered. “Cannonball.”

Taiga’s eyes went very wide and she shot a glance at Aomine, who didn’t seem to have heard. Then she looked at Akashi and Midorima, the only two full enough of themselves that they’d started swimming before anyone else. There were other people in the pool now, but they were standing peaceably near the opposite side, not daring to swim out.

“They’ll kill us,” she whispered back. “Let’s do it.”

Takao grinned. “Act casual,” he said, and he stood and stretched and walked a little back from the pool, making sure he had a clear path. Taiga followed his lead, and when Aomine shot yet another scowl at her, Taiga acted like she wanted to check her hair in the reflection from the dark glass doors. He returned to glaring at the fickle horde, who had transferred their worshipful gazes upon Momoi.

Taiga let her jacket drop. Takao turned casually and dug in his foot for a running start. No one was paying attention to them.

Taiga didn’t bother to wait for Takao, who had his own landing site staked out anyway, she turned and ran for the pool like going for a lane up and launched herself into the air. Taiga had the vague impression of people being surprised and Aomine yelling, but too little, too late- she crashed into the water and sent a massive wash of water exploding out of the pool.

Because life was only vaguely unfair, when Taiga kicked to the surface she found herself confronted by a sputtering Midorima blinking pool water out of his eyes as well as an Akashi who was- well, fine, he’d been wet before, but now he looked- absolutely nothing like a drowned rat. He did look somewhat torn between incandescent irritation and bored resignation, but this was his default expression all the time anyway, regardless of anything Taiga did.

Momoi, dripping wet, squealed and laughed, pulling back her soaked jacket. “Tai-chan!” she said, protesting, and peeled it off, “Takao-kun, that could have been very dangerous.”

“Never!” said Takao, struggling a little to keep his whole head out of the water. Midorima reached out with one long hand- no trouble touching the floor with him- and pushed Takao under. Taiga couldn’t let that stand, so she jumped until her hands were on his shoulders and then shifted all her weight to them and he was down, until she had her knees under her and could use them to make sure he didn’t come up.

“Midorin!” cried Momoi.

Someone was whooping, Taiga could barely hear, through her own shouting and Midorima’s inexplicable reluctance to actually claw her off his back but he got his feet under him and he grabbed at her arms so that she couldn’t escape, and she thought that she had better try to not hurt him either.

“Kagami-san,” said Akashi.

“Taiga,” said someone else, and Taiga went limp and let Midorima stand up.

Himuro Tatsuya stood on the lip of the pool above them, smiling gently, with the whistle of sports camp authority around his neck, and Taiga tightened her arms around Midorima’s neck for a second before she remembered herself and pushed away from him.

Midorima didn’t get the hint, because instead of letting go of her he held onto one arm, so that she sort of floated around to in front of him, instead of away. He coughed and choked and said, in a furious voice, “Kagami, what in the world were you-”

“Midorima-kun?” said Tatsuya, letting the ice seep in now.

Midorima squinted up at him. “Who are you?” he said, abruptly.

“I believe Himuro-san to be our supervisor for this activity,” said Akashi, in a bored voice. Naturally, he had gotten out of the water entirely and didn’t even appear to have ever been wet. He looked at Tatsuya, assessing him. “Did you have trouble locating the facilities?”

Tatsuya smiled.

Taiga winced and looked at several other guilty faces in the pool, where they must have piled in to splash around like you were supposed to when there was a pool right there and no pseudo-adult supervision. Takao was clinging to the side of the pool apologising to Momoi, but laughing while he did it. Aomine was lying on his back on the benches Taiga had abandoned, staring at the ceiling in a posture of utter defeat and indifference. He was such a drama queen.

“I’ve lost my swimming cap,” said Midorima, miffed. He squinted at her. “ _And_ my goggles,” he said. “They have a prescription.”

“You’re so weird,” Taiga said. She put out the hand that wasn’t caught by him to push some of his hair out of his face, and that was weird too, the way he was usually so neat and now looked bedraggled. He let go of her arm, pointedly. “I’ll get them for you,” she said, because it had after all been her fault.

When she surfaced again, it was to restored order and an Aomine who had come around to their side of the pool to drop his Touou jacket on Momoi’s shoulders in a clear statement of no ulterior motive at all. Aomine listened with half an ear to Midorima’s muttering complaints and frowned at the water lapping his toes, fastidious as cat.

“Here,” she said shortly, and gave his lame cap and goggles back to Midorima. Tatsuya and Akashi had finished whatever skirmish they had wished to enact, and emerged apparently satisfied on both sides. Akashi, by doing absolutely nothing, was herding the rest of the boys into orderly lines in the pool.

“Taiga, that looks nice,” said Tatsuya, smiling down at her. “I haven’t seen that one before.”

Taiga felt everyone looking at her while she blushed. “It’s been two years,” she said. Two productive years. “I definitely had to get new ones. How- how long are you helping?”

“I’m spending the rest of the week,” said Tatsuya. “I would have come down sooner, but they had to get approval for me.”

Taiga eyed him dubiously, but couldn’t help smiling. It would be nice to have Tatsuya around, even if they hadn’t yet worked out all the new ways they were not brothers, even if Aomine and Midorima and Momoi all three were looking between them with wariness, even if, where she had touched Midorima, she felt a crazy itching to go back and rough him up some more.

“Won’t this be fun,” said Tatsuya, smiling lazily at them. “We should do some practices now, though. Playtime is over.”


	20. Chapter 20

“Oh come on,” said Taiga, staring upwards. “Not _you_.”

Aomine cracked his jaw, and leaned over her menacingly. “What was that?” he said dangerously. “ _You_ are the one who sent a fucking emergency text to Satsuki, then when I got the call from her asking to look in you, _you_ fucking hung up on me and-”

“I didn’t mean for her to send _you_ ,” said Taiga. His hand landed on her head. “Ow, let- SIT DOWN! SIT! NOW!” she dragged him into the Maji Burger booth with her, leaning over his lap to furtively peer out at the rest of the restaurant.

“What. The hell,” said Aomine. He’d banged his elbow on the table and she was clutching him hard enough he actually thought he might bruise- what the hell did this girl bench press- but on the other hand he was dangerously close to having a lapful of wriggling girl, so he set his teeth, grabbed Kagami Taiga by the back of her collar, and deposited her back in the seat in front her mountain of burger wrappers. She was lucky he didn’t throw her back out, and go back to what he had been doing, which was browsing shoes at the shop four streets down. He’d _jogged_ to get here, and all because Satsuki had sounded so worried when she called him on the phone. It didn’t sound unlikely at all to Aomine that Kagami Taiga, one of the most annoying girls he knew, couldn’t stay out of trouble just getting burgers in the shopping district.

“Ow,” said Taiga, and she sat up and sank down from sight at the same time, so that she was curled up against him, wedging herself against his arm, which dropped onto her side.

“Your breasts are touching me,” pointed out Aomine.

Taiga tried to scoot back, but his arm was still around her, and they were big people, the booth didn’t give them that much room to move.

“I didn’t say that was a _bad_ thing,” said Aomine, and smirked at her. “Why don’t you want to be seen, or whatever it is we’re doing here? If you wanted a date, you could just ask me out, you know.”

Taiga made a face. “Yeah, as if,” she said. “No, I- I saw this girl I used to know, and I texted Momoi to see if she was around. That’s all.”

“I’m here because ….” said Aomine slowly, “You’re scared of some little _girl_?”

“I texted _Momoi_ ,” Taiga reminded him. “I just needed to- I’d have gone out by myself even- where the hell are you going?”

“I’m hungry,” said Aomine. He got up, and ordered, and paid, ambling back to the booth with his tray. Just something small, since he didn’t think they would be staying long.

He sat back down, and said, “Are you seriously afraid of that little thing, I could break her in half with my pinky finger.”

“She was in my middle school,” said Taiga. Aomine stabbed his drink, and took a long, calming, noisy sip. “She- augh, this sounds so lame- she bullied me back then, okay? She hates my guts. She made it her business to make sure I was miserable as possible.” Taiga curled back up to him, as innocently as a kitten. “She knows I’m in here,” she hissed. “She’s waiting me out.”

“Why didn’t you just smack her around until she stopped?” said Aomine. He chomped through his first burger. He’d only bought three, which was about as long as he expected any sob story to last.

“Oh, yeah, I should totally have beaten her up in middle school,” said Taiga. “Then I could have gotten expelled for slapping around a girl half my size instead of suspended for punching out her boyfriend and his lowlife friends.”

She said it so matter-of-factly that Aomine just stared at her, crumpling his empty straw sleeve between her fingers.

“He was in the club,” she explained. “The basketball club. He’s- not out there. But I don’t think they ever forgave me for showing them up, so- I had trouble.” She set her shoulders, and reached for her drink before she realised it was empty, shaking it sadly. There wasn’t even ice left inside, from the sound of it.

“Look it’s not a big deal,” she said, defensively. “They just came down hard on me. I mean, after I did that it died off among the boys. And the girls got a little scared, so they just froze me out after that. I just- I didn’t want to walk out where she could see me alone.”

Aomine dusted the crumbs of his second burger off his fingers, and tapped his drink against the table. He thought he saw why Satsuki had called him, and said that Taiga needed him to take care of her. Needed anyone.

“Anyway, sorry you came out here,” said Taiga. “Look, fine, I’ll owe you, okay? For Momoi calling you out.”

“Yeah?” said Aomine. He finished his last burger, and reached a decision. “Let’s go, then.”

He reached out to Taiga as she was getting out, and took her hand to pull her in close to him. “Put your arm around my waist.”

“What- oh, we’re doing that again,” she said. She put her arm around him, gingerly. “Fine. It’s not so far out of the restaurant, you know.”

“Yeah, we’re doing that again,” he said. He thought again about how _tall_ she really was, and how now, suddenly, she seemed smaller, pressed against him through all their layers of clothes. How she was making herself smaller, trying to hide herself away.

“I’m all you’re looking at,” he murmured into her ear. He pulled her along with him, two young people draped all over each other without a care in the world, and she came, willingly. “You’re better than her, you don’t even see her. She’s nothing. Look at _me_.”

Taiga looked at him, and he believed it- that he was all she could see.

They walked out the door and down the street, and once they were far enough away Taiga shook herself free, and smiled at Aomine, a little embarrassed, a little relieved. “Thanks,” she said. “I’ll remember I owe you.”

“Damn straight you owe me,” he said. He pulled his jacket straight and stood up without compensating for her weight; he felt a little colder, where she’d been touching him before.

 


End file.
